


Tales from the Sewers

by thekumquat



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-08-08 09:56:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7753096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thekumquat/pseuds/thekumquat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of various drabbles and ficlets I have done and will do. Pairings will be most Raph/Casey, April/Donnie and Karai/happiness, with tags added as necessary. It'll also mostly be for the 2012 tv show, because that has my soul right now, but there will also be some stuff for the bayverse turtles. </p><p>[anything involving Karai will take place in a nondescript future where nothing can hurt her and everything is good]</p><p>1. Casey's family finds out about his boyfriend.<br/>2. Karai finds Sephora's eyeliner selection severely lacking.<br/>3. April and Donnie make out.<br/>4. Donnie needs to pay more attention to his girlfriend.<br/>5. Casey wants to propose. The turtles want to make sure April will be happy.  (Tmnt 2016)<br/>6. The fight against Shredder is over, for now, and there will be lots to do soon. For now, they need rest.  (TMNT 2014)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Busted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TMNT 2012, Raph/Casey

Dinner time was family time at the Jones household. No tv, no video games, no phones, just the three of them crowded around the kitchen table. Mr Jones might resemble a shaved bear with a bad attitude, but he was, at heart, a family man.  

“Okay kids,” he said. “What’s new?”

“Coach ordered the new hockey jerseys,” Casey said. “They’re comin in next week and they are gonna be suh-weet. AND coach said he wants me to start playing center.”

Mr Jones made an approving noise and turned to his daughter.

“Riley?”

“Ummm, we had a math quiz today, and we did paper mache in art class, and Sarah threw up in the locker room after gym. And Casey has a boyfriend.”

Casey choked on his milk, spilling it down his shirt.

“I do not!” he yelled, voice cracking.

“He does!”

Mr Jones raised an eyebrow. “Boyfriend?”  

“She’s lying!”

“I am not! I heard you kissing on the fire escape last night when you came home!” She made kissing noises. “ ‘mwah mwah oooh Raph you’re such a good kisser mwah mwah’– ow!”

Casey kicked her under the table again.

“I’m going to turn you inside out you little twerp!”

“Alright, alright,” Mr Jones said, pushing Casey back into his seat. “Riley, no one likes a snitch. Casey, don’t hit your sister.”

Casey scowled at Riley, who stuck her tongue out. Mr Jones gave his son a stern look.

“You know I don’t like you playing around on that fire escape. You wanna make out with your boyfriend, you do it on the roof or in the house.”

“Aaaww, _Dad_.”

“And I want you to _keep_ it at first base. You don’t run for home till you’re eighteen, got it?”  

Casey put his head on the table and covered his head in his arms, letting out a long unhappy groan.

“Raph and Casey sittin in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-“


	2. It's the Little Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TMNT 2012, no pairing. 
> 
> Karai finds Sephora's eyeliner selection sorely lacking.

Karai didn’t ask much out of life.

She wanted the love of her father – check.

The destruction of her enemies – check.

A decent eyeliner – working on it.

She popped open yet another tube of liquid liner and stroked it across the back of her hand, adding to the criss-cross of failed tests. It came out watery and grey at the edges. She growled and tossed it back on the shelf.

The back of her hand was starting to look like a nasty bruise, she’d been standing here for over half an hour and she was still no closer to completing her goal.

“Hey,” said a voice at her side. April smiled at her. “Fancy running into you here.”

“I found a Sephora gift card on one of the purple dragons my brothers and I fought last night.”

My brothers. She loved the little shiver the words gave her. A reminder that she had a family. Her real family. 

“Nice!” April glanced at the back of Karai’s hand and raised an eyebrow. “Having some trouble deciding?”

“No. Yes.” She huffed. “I know what I WANT. These are all just so…inferior.”

“Well what do you usually get?”

“They only sell my usual brand in Japan. Shipping is fifty bucks.”

“For EYELINER?”

“I know! And I buy a LOT of eyeliner.”

“You must go through a tube a week, at least.”

Karai rolled her eyes. 

"I don’t wear _that_ much.” 

“Seriously? I’ve never even seen you without it. Why do you wear so much?” 

“It makes my eyes look bigger, and I like to show them off. Why don’t you wear _any_ makeup?”

“I wear makeup!” 

Karai raised her eyebrow at the tube in April’s hand. 

“Lip gloss one shade lighter than your natural color does not count.” She gave April a sideways glance and said slyly “I bet you Donnie would like to see you all done up.” 

She smirked as April sputtered. 

“What! Why would I! I don’t! Ugh, _so_?” 

Karai shrugged nonchalantly. She looked over the rack of eyeliner for the fifty thousandth time that day, and waited. 

“Okay, if- _wipe that look off your face, Hamato_ \- IF I was to try some makeup, what would you say I should try?” 

“Ugh, _finally_.” She grabbed April’s hand and dragged her towards the Urban Decay aisle. “Let’s get some color on you, gaijin.” 

 

In the end, Karai didn’t get what she wanted. But she got something better -- time well spent with a friend. 

And the chance to see Donatello drop a box of heavy engine parts on his foot when he saw April’s new look.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I take any opportunity to make April and Karai snarky bffs.


	3. Making Out in the Lab

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apritello. Just...Donnie and April making out.

Nothing was better than kissing April. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Not working out a complex equation, not inventing something new to help his brothers, not beating Raph at practice, _nothing_.

She was sitting on the table in his lab, had him pulled up close against her, standing between her legs. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, their chests pressed close together. It was good, it was so good.

He’d lost track of time. Whenever they kissed, his brain stopped working, all higher cognitive functions split between remembering every minute detail of the moment and _April April April April April._

She ran her hands up and down his arms and boy was he ever glad that years of training had given him some impressive muscles. April certainly seemed to like them.

April broke off the kiss, but didn’t pull away. She smiled at him, soft and sweet, and never in a thousand years would he understand what he’d done to deserve this. April cupped his cheek, stroking her thumb over his cheekbone.

“I love that look,” she said. He blinked a few times and tried to get his mouth recalibrated for speaking again.

“What look?”

“The look you get whenever we kiss. It’s so…”

“Happy?” he hazarded.

“More than happy. Blissful, maybe.” She grinned. “It’s pretty good for my ego.”

Donnie laughed a little, blushing. He hadn’t realized that he was showing his thoughts so obviously. April placed her other hand on his face and pulled him in so they were nose to nose. Donnie placed his hands on the table, on either side of her, not wanting to lean too far forward and unbalance her.

She kissed him once, then again, and his knees went weak.

“I love you,” he blurted out suddenly. It was say it or let his heart explode from the sheer overwhelming force of his emotions. She smiled and kissed him again.

“I love you too.” Another grin, this one with an edge that made him shiver. “Enough talking, Donatello.”

“Right, yep, talking is overrated, who needs talking? That’s why talk is cheap because nobody wants it, surplus of goods, supply and dema–”

April pinched his lips shut with two fingers.

“Let’s pick up where we left off, shall we?”

He nodded fervently until she caught him with another kiss. He melted against her, arms wrapped tightly around her, like she might disappear if he let go.

Nothing was better than kissing April.

 


	4. Missing Signals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TMNT 2012, Apritello.

Donnie pushed his chair away from the computer and stretched. His joints popped like rice crispies. He glanced at the clock and winced. No wonder he was so stiff; he’d been at this for almost three hours without stopping.

“Hey Donnie.”

He sat up and grinned at April.

At his girlfriend, his _girlfriend_ , his **girlfriend** , his ** _girlfriend_** , his G I R L F R I E N D.

“Hi!”

“Whatcha up to? Leo said you’ve been in here all day.”

“I’ve been working on some coding.”

“Robots?” She knew him well.

“Robots.” He stretched again.

April dumped her bag in the corner and came to stand beside him. She put her hand on his shoulder and leaned over him to look at his work. He could smell her, strawberry bodywash and tea tree shampoo and the tang of her sunscreen. It made him feel lightheaded and dry-mouthed, even now.

“That’s a lot of code. What’s the bar at the bottom?”

“Oh, the code’s compiling. It’ll take a while. The longer the code, the more it needs to compile.”

“So you’ve got some time to kill,” she said, in a strange tone of voice.

“Oh yeah, plenty.”

Her fingertips brushed the back of his neck, leaving little trails of heat behind.

“I’m sure we can think of something for you to do to pass the time,” she said, still in that odd tone. He smiled up at her.

“Oh I know _exactly_ what I can do,” he said. She leaned in a little.

“And what’s that?” she asked, voice low, eyes half-lidded and filled with dark heat.

He spun the chair around and headed for his chemistry table.

“I’ve got some bacterial cultures I can work on! There’s a few experiments I’ve been meaning to work on for a while-”

“Ahem.”

Donnie turned. April raised an eyebrow at him.

It clicked.

“Oh,” he said, heat rising to his face. “Oh, you meant…”

“Yeah.” She sauntered over to him, fingers trailing along the table. “I mean, if you’d rather work on your _cultures_ than make out with your girlfriend…”  

“No! I mean yes! I mean!”

She leaned against him. His arms came up automatically to circle her waist.

“Let’s try that again.” In a bright, perky voice, she said “gosh Donnie, sounds like your coding is going to take a while to compile! I’m sure we can think of _something_ to pass the time.”

“We, uh, w-we could-” The words were still hard to actually say. Even now some part of him was sure he was misreading the situation, that she wasn’t really dating him, he’d just misunderstood. If he actually said anything to her or tried to initiate anything, she might realize his mistake and it would all be over.

He cleared his throat and shuffled the thoughts away.

“We could make out?” 

“That’s a great idea! You really _are_ a genius.”


	5. Ring It In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tmnt 2016, casey/April, turtles/messing with Casey's head

Casey threw himself down on his couch. April was out of town for some “girl’s weekend” with her “only normal friend”, whatever  _ that  _ was about, so it was just Casey, take out, a beer, and the hockey game. 

Casey let out a contented sigh and raised his beer to his lips. 

_ Tap tap tap.  _ Someone knocked politely at his window. 

He closed his eyes. He didn’t have to look. He knew. Maybe if he ignored it, they’d go away. 

_ Tap tap tap _ again on the window. 

Casey took a deep drink of his beer. They were probably just bored. April was out of town and there was nothing interesting going on so they’d come here to wail on their favorite human punching bag. 

Not tonight. Casey was going to have a  _ good night _ . 

The knocking on his window turned decidedly less polite. Casey turned up the volume on the tv. 

“We know you can hear us, Jones!” Raph called. Casey shut his eyes and prayed. 

“You can open the window or I can disconnect your cable!” 

Casey ripped the curtains aside and glared at the goon squad clustered on his fire escape. They were grinning at him -- and it wasn’t their usual “ha ha look at us, fucking with some poor shmuck who did nothing to deserve it, aren’t we clever” grins either. 

“We wanna see the ring,” said Leo before Casey could even ask. Casey froze. Eyes flicked from face to eager face. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, going for casual. The grins only grew wider. 

“I have a program attached to your bank account that pings me whenever you make a big purchase.” 

Casey gaped at him. 

“Relax, I have one on April’s too,” Donnie said, as if that somehow excused the massive violation of Casey’s privacy. 

“Shut up and show us the ring, man, come on!” Mikey slapped his hands excitedly on the window sill; Casey felt the strong urge to slam the window down on his fingers. Instead, he gave up. He always gave up. There was no other way. He just a normal guy who wanted a nice,normal night with his hockey and his beer, and not having to babysit his girlfriend’s four weird green children. 

Someday he and Verne were going to sit down and have a nice long bitch fest about April’s “family”. 

All the same, when he presented the little velvet box to the group, he couldn’t help but smile a little. 

“Wow that actually looks decent,” Leo said. 

“I know, I was expecting  _ way _ worse!” Mikey said. “Good job, dude!” 

“Hey!” 

Donnie grabbed the box out of Casey’s hand and pulled down his goggles.

_ “Hey! _ ” 

“A lab-made diamond?” 

Raph narrowed his eyes. 

“You couldn’t even get April the real deal? What kind of cheapskate are you?” 

“Okay  _ first  _ of all, you guys get all your stuff from the trash, so don’t go calling  _ me  _ cheap.  _ Second _ , I know my girlfriend and I know how she feels about the diamond trade and the whole “three paychecks for a ring” stuff, so- what? What?” 

The grins were back and bigger than ever. 

“Okay,” Leo said. “I think we’ll let him stay.” 

“ _ Let  _ me stay?” 

“Yeah, you passed. Welcome to the family. For real this time!” Mikey gave him two thumbs up. 

Casey took the ring box back from Donnie and folded his arms. 

“Does this mean you guys are going to stop giving me so much shit?”

All four cackled as they climbed the fire escape. 

“Good one, Casey!” Leo said cheerfully. 

“It just means we won’t run you off,” Donnie said. 

Raph came back down and gave Casey a suddenly serious, dangerous look. 

“Unless you-”

“Hurt April, yes, I know, we  _ had  _ this conversation like ten times already.”

Raph shrugged. 

“Just so long as everyone understands each other.” 

“Get some new material!” Casey called after them as they vanished into the night. Their laughter was the only response he got. 

He closed the window, shut the curtains and turned around. 

“The shit I put up with for that woman, I swear-”

The tv screen was frozen on an error message telling him to contact his service provider. 

“ _ Oh come on!”  _


	6. Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2014 movie.

Despite fifteen years of semi-humanity, Splinter has never gotten the hang of mattresses. He prefers to nest in piles of blankets and pillows, and he’s thankful for that now. He can ease something soft under the bones that ache the most (it’s all of them, really, all the way down to his tail).

There is so much that needs to be done, but all of it has to wait. Wait until they’ve slept, wait until the chaos above has died down, wait until they’ve found someplace new to go. He can’t stop thinking about it. He’s creating lists of problems that need to be solved. Every time he manages to wind down, his mind catches on some new worry and winds itself right back up again.

There’s a shuffling noise outside the old, heavy curtain he uses for a door. The dim glow of the Christmas lights above peek into his room when the curtain is pulled aside.

“Master Splinter?” Mikey’s voice is soft and uncertain.

He’s so tired. For a moment he honestly considers pretending to be asleep just so he won’t have to deal with whatever the newest crisis is – Raphael trying to strangle Leonardo in his sleep, perhaps.

He regrets the thought instantly when Mikey speaks again.

“Dad?”

“Come in,” he says. “What’s wrong?”

Michelangelo doesn’t say anything. He steps inside the curtain and shuffles his feet, all embarrassment. But he doesn’t need to speak – Splinter sees the pillow in his hands and realizes what’s going on.

He does not say “aren’t you too old for this”. He doesn’t say anything. He just curls his fingers in a come-here motion, and Mikey obeys.

Mikey clambers onto the blanket beside Splinter, tosses down his pillow and rests his head on his father’s shoulder.  Splinter closes his eyes. With the steady beat of Michelangelo’s breathing in his ears, Splinter begins to drift.

“Dad?”

Leonardo stands just inside the curtain. His eyes land on Mikey, who cringes. But Leo just looks to Splinter, expression hopeful.

“Can I…?”

Splinter waves him in and Leo easily takes the spot next to him.

Splinter stays awake this time, waiting. Barely five minutes pass before Donatello sticks his head in the door. When he sees his brother, he doesn’t even bother to ask, just stretches out next to Leo.  

They all lay in silence, waiting. The lair is silent, but for the slow drip of water and the rumble of distant trains.  

Mikey sighs and sits up.

“I’ll go get him.”

They listen as he pads back out.

“Dude, _what_?”

“Don’t argue, just go.”

“I was asleep!”

“No you weren’t.”

“What do you _mean ‘_ no I was-‘“

Mikey pushes Raph through the curtain. Raph stands there, thrown off balance at the sight of his brothers on the floor. Mikey flops back down and everyone stares up, expectantly.

They all pretend not to notice how relieved Raph looks.

Raph limps his way over to a pile of pillows. The cracks in his shell have only just started to heal, and Splinter knows it’s still painful. Raph doesn’t make any noise of complaint as he settles in.

Now together, the boys are asleep almost instantly.

Donnie is curled up in a ball, snoring softly. Mikey is spread out, arms flung wide, one leg on Raph, drooling on Splinter’s shoulder. In sleep, Raph’s face smooths out, lines of irritation gone, leaving him looking more like his 15 years.

Leo reaches out, so slowly he must be doing it in his sleep, and wraps his hand around Splinter’s tail, just like he used to do when he was young.

Splinter smiles to himself, and sleeps.


End file.
